As the Gaza war enters its seventh week, millions of Israelis wake up each morning hoping to hear news of some Entebbe-like raid overnight to free the 239 hostages, or some type of military maneuver – akin to the encirclement of the Egyptian third army during the Yom Kippur War – that would signal a victorious end to the current war.
But each day, so far, they have been disappointed.
Which doesn’t mean that the IDF is not doing its job. It is doing its job, and it is doing it well, having recovered swiftly and effectively from the initial shock of October 7.
But it is doing its job slowly, methodically, and carefully to minimize IDF fatalities – which so far have been far fewer than the doomsday predictions in years past of what would happen were the IDF to try to move into Gaza City – and also to minimize casualties among Gazan non-combatants.
What this slow, methodical fighting means is that, instead of waking up to some dramatic piece of news heralding decisive victory and an end in sight, the nation wakes up each morning to terse reports about solidifying control of the northern Gaza or closing in on Al-Shifa hospital. It also wakes up to the dreadful words of the radio newsreader: “Cleared for publication...” which leads into a reading of the names of the IDF soldiers who fell the day before inside Gaza.
It wakes up to incremental progress: to right hooks and sharp jabs and uppercuts, but, as of yet, no knock-out punch.
The IDF’s activities inside the Gaza Strip have so far been enveloped in a thick fog. The country has a rough idea of what the army is doing, but few details about exactly where the forces are, what kind of resistance they are coming up against, and how they are neutralizing the maze of underground tunnels.
Although this lack of information can be frustrating, it serves a purpose. If Israelis don’t know exactly where the troops are or what they are doing or planning, neither does the enemy. Indeed, even reports of fallen soldiers are just bare-bones, with no details of how they fell, in what circumstance, or up against which type of force.
It is a a different war, this war that is still without a commonly used name: its official name, Swords of Iron, having never caught on. It’s a war that will get a name that will come into prominence once the war ends: perhaps the Simchat Torah War, or the First Gaza War, or the Hamas War.
It’s a different war in that it’s an urban war, but one where tanks are still playing an enormously important part.
It’s a war where commandos in the engineering corps – responsible for flushing out and destroying tunnels – are playing a starring role. It’s a war in which there is wall-to-wall consensus – something rare in Israel – for its justification, even as it has gone on for seven weeks.
It’s a war in which hospitals or, more precisely what is under the hospitals, are key military targets. And it’s a war in which the army is being slowed down less by enemy resistance, and more by the knowledge that Hamas is holding 239 children, women, and men.
The mission: destroy Hamas, release the hostages
Immediately after the October 7 atrocity, the political and military echelon said that the war had two main objectives: to destroy Hamas, meaning to eliminate its political and military capabilities and to gain the release of the hostages. A third goal was tacked on as well: to restore deterrence and serve as a cautionary tale to Hezbollah and other enemies in the region.
While both military and political leaders deny it, there is somewhat of a contraction between the first and second goals: destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.
The IDF says that pursuing the first goal, eliminating Hamas, will better enable the freeing of hostages by placing military pressure on the terrorist organization, but some of the relatives of the hostages say that they are worried the relentless military pressure endangers their loved ones.
Were it not for the hostages being held by Hamas, the pace of the war might be faster. Were it not for the hostages, it is doubtful Israel would agree to what is being discussed – a break in the fighting for between three to five days to allow for the release of some of the hostages – nor would it allow any fuel to enter the Gaza Strip.
Were there no hostages, Israel might very well have been further along in its goal of destroying Hamas’ military capabilities and its political hold on the Gaza Strip than it is now.
But there are hostages, and their release is a supreme consideration. So the aim of dismantling Hamas is progressing slowly, and gradually.
BUT it is progressing. Certain images emerged from the war this week indicating the degree to which the IDF was dismantling Hamas, both its governmental and military infrastructure.
The first image was the picture of Golani soldiers in full battle gear inside Hamas’ parliament with Israeli flags and the flag of the Golani brigade. Another image was of soldiers inside Al-Shifa Hospital.
Both images are symbolic. The photo of the soldiers inside the parliament is symbolic of the loss of Hamas’s governmental control of Gaza, an area it has controlled with an iron fist since overthrowing the Palestinian Authority in 2005. The IDF blew up the building two days later.
The photos of the soldiers in the Rantissi and Al-Shifa hospitals are symbols of the degree to which the IDF is dismantling Hamas’s terror infrastructure, which was centered in, around, and under these hospitals. The images of soldiers in those hospitals show Israel’s ability and determination to go anywhere to dismantle that infrastructure.
If the parliament was a symbol of Hamas’s civilian control, the hospitals, ironically, were symbols of Hamas’s military strength and perceived invulnerability.
These photos were important for Israelis because they showed the progress the army has made over the last 40 days, that it is sitting in the pumping heart of terrorist Hamastan, and dismantling it building by building, hospital by hospital, tunnel by tunnel.
These pictures are also important for Hamas and the rest of the Muslim world to see. As much as those images are meant to lift Israeli morale, they are also meant to demoralize the enemy, and also send a message to other foes such as Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah. The message to Nasrallah is simple: what we did in Gaza, we can do in Lebanon as well.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said this week that Hamas has lost control in Gaza, and he pointed to those images as proof.
“You’ve seen Golani troops sitting in Gaza’s Parliament. This is significant. I can tell you that in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas has lost control. In fact, we are in control of the entire area above and below ground in the northern Gaza Strip, and especially in Gaza City.”
The problem is that the time Israel has to complete the task of dismantling Hamas throughout Gaza is not unlimited. Gallant and the IDF senior staff need to keep their eyes on the clock.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said he felt Israel had another two to three weeks left on the diplomatic clock before pressure mounts on Israel for a ceasefire.
“From our point of view, there is no clock — we won’t stop the military campaign until we’ve eliminated Hamas and returned the hostages,” he said. Nevertheless, he added diplomatic pressure is beginning to be felt.
In the meantime, US President Joe Biden has remained steadfast in his support, refusing to demand a ceasefire, as some in his party are repeatedly calling for.
On Wednesday evening, after meeting visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden defended Israel: “Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again like they did before, cutting babies’ heads off, burning women and children alive. So the idea that they’re going to just stop and not do anything is not realistic. This is not carpet bombing. This is a different thing.”
At the same time, the US also sent an indication that same night that time is not unlimited by not vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable, consistent with international humanitarian law, the full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access for United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners.” The resolution also called for the release of “all hostages held by Hamas and other groups, especially children.”
Israel rejected the resolution, with Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan saying it is “disconnected from reality and is meaningless.” However, that the measure passed, and that the US abstained, rather than vetoed, is an indication of what Cohen was talking about – that the diplomatic clock is ticking. What that means is that if the IDF hopes to dismantle Hamas’s capabilities, it needs a constant supply of images of soldiers in key Hamas installations – military and governmental – before the time Israel has for the IDF operation runs out.